The Morning Heresy 4/23/12: Legion of Doom

April 23, 2012

On Mondays, there's always a lot of material to catch up on from over the weekend here at the Heresy. It becomes hard to organize it all so that it's not too overwhelming, but all the bases get covered. Bear with me, though. One theme that's emerged with a vengeance over the past few weeks is the rise of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as this kind of society of supervillains, like the Legion of Doom or something. Every day I'm posting at least one new link about how they're doing something so jaw-droppingly regressive or inflammatory that it defies basic notions of propriety and, well, modernity itself. So this week I'll see about grouping their stories into one sub-heading to keep it all a little more organized. Onward!

"The larger concern with secularism is that it damages people, and that it actually keeps people from being reasonable with one another. . . .It creates a great level of intolerance for people of faith."

Notre Dame faculty asks for resignation from board of fellows of bishop who compared Obama to Hitler and Stalin, AU says he was engaged in illegal electioneering

"The lead-up to the 2012 presidential election is as much about which form of Christianity will rule as it is about the economy, war, the size of government and other highly charged issues of the day."

Speaking of Hitler! (And when are we not?) Here's a 1932 article from The Atlantic on "Hitlerism," with this bit that stood out to me:

"For him there is only one thing in human life to aim at. Race and nation are one, and he has fused them into an idol which he calls Volkstum, the racial community, which becomes an object of fanatical devotion. In short, his political philosophy is a kind of religion, based on pseudo science and tribal psychology."

McGill science professor on his support of CFI-backed lawsuit against homeopathy peddlers in Canada

"I’m aware that some Lebanese think it a rather good thing that, in their country, wives may be legally raped and beaten; marital and inheritance disputes are settled by theologians; films and plays are routinely censored; and a child born to the wrong faith can’t become president. For those who feel otherwise, however, the march starts at 16:00 at Sanayeh Gardens, May 6th."

Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul or CFI . Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is.

Comments:

Paul: I’d appreciate if you could change the link in this story: “Lots of buzz about alleged Loch Ness Monster sonar evidence—Sharon Hill: “This is not news””. The skeptic.com page is a direct feed of the Doubtful News site but we’d like to be able to count hits and continue any discussion on the story at the main site. Thanks.

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Paul Fidalgo has been communications director of the Center for Inquiry since 2012. He holds a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University, and has worked previously for FairVote: The Center for Voting and Democracy and the Secular Coalition for America. Paul is also an actor and musician whose work includes five years performing with the American Shakespeare Center. He lives in Maine with his wife and kids. His blog is Near-Earth Object, and he tweets at @paulfidalgo.